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ROAD and rail links with the rest of the country need to be improved if Plymouth is to grow economically, the city council has told an influential panel of MPs.
 The details are contained in Plymouth City Council's official submission to the major Parliamentary inquiry into transport in the West Country.
http://www.thisisplymouth.co.uk/business/Poor-transport-holding-city/article-1177617-detail/article.html

Yawn.

Sorry, but what can be done?

We are in a credit crunch and the gov have spent all the money on the Olympics.

What do they expect to happen? HS2 re-routed to Plymouth? Can't they see the GWML juicing and IEP as the best and only realistic thing for the time being?

And how many of the MPs are Tory? Perhaps they should have words with the Shadow Cabinet and tell them not to scrap everything!

Hang on Btline, I thought the government was spending all the money on the EU...?  ;) And you can't blame the good folk of Plymouth for trying, after all, you've been quite a vociferous advocate of faster rail links to Worcester in the past!

I think BTline that problems with the present FGW service between Plymouth/Cornwall and Paddington need sorting first for example many heavily loaded Penzance/Paddingtons cannot now keep to time between Penzance and Exeter due to the time taken to load luggage.From regular personal experience on most Saturdays the up "limited" for instance is between 5 and 10 minutes late by Plymouth.These delays are then sometimes added to between Newton Abbot and Exeter as a delayed Penzance/Paddington gets caught behind a Paignton stopper a situation that timetable planners need to sort.I have lost count of the number of FGW Paddington/Penzance in that after an on time or early arrival at Exeter then get delayed between Exeter and Newton Abbot because of this problem.
 Unfortunately for the passengers the current method of recording train performance means that these operating problems are masked over but believe they are frequent and ongoing between Penzance/Plymouth/Exeter and merely add to the image of "Poor Transport"  in these parts.

All five committee members are Labour MPs, because the Conservatives and Lib Dems, who hold most of the South West's seats, have refused to have anything to do with the regional committee system.

Rail-wise, poor Plymouth comes out way behind Exeter:
the whole hour it takes to go from Exeter means Plymouth is remote in rail terms from London.
there is no real "metro" system ^ la Exeter.
whereas Exeter has two direct lines to the capital across southern England, Plymouth has just the one.

Not sure if a metro service running from Friary via Laira to North Road has ever been mooted. Also, a line from North Road via Tavistock Junction, up the Plym Valley line and then a new short spur across to the Derriford/Airport area seems possible. In both cases, services could be extended to Gunnislake/Tavistock.

Plymouth could be a lot worse than it is! It has an hourly service to Bristol/Brum and points north, it has an (almost) hourly service to London 7 days a week which gives it at least 2TPH to Exeter.

The service is quite poor in the evening though.

The roads are hardly amazing - that massive roundabout at Sainsburys is a nightmare to negotiate! I hate to think what it is like in peak hour!

Marsh Mills isn't too bad.

My words were quite harsh I agree - it was late! Take it with a pinch of salt... (which you probably do most times when I post! ::) ;D )

There is a definitely a case for a small number of direct, non stopping or limited stopping, services from London to other cities, say Plymouth, Bristol, Cardiff etc to provide fast services.

The problem however there is not the capacity in the network to easily allow this, and if people saw the premium they would have to pay they would have a heart attack.   

things would be greatly improved if there was a stopping service from plymouth to exeter.... the hst's are packed full of people doing this trip

There is plenty of capacity Exeter - Plymouth!

Most Cross Country's run round half empty!

yet the fgw hst's are used more than the xc ones between the two destinations.... somethings going wrong

Yeah its probably called Voyager avoidance.

you know what that along with what service is due at chuck out time from work may be a very valid point!, its only a short journey but ive got a fgw hst insted of the empty voyager before just to get the buffet (which ended up being shut lol)

Which is why Air Southwest now fly Plymouth/Gatwick 4 times a day and Plymouth/London city airport twice a day.As I heard a gentleman from the Plymouth business community say on radio Devon in response to calls by the Green Party at Glastonbury recently to curb airport expansion "It is not feasable at present to conduct business adequately on distances over 200/250 miles now other than by air"Rail Journey times of 3 to 3 1/2hours from Plymouth to Paddington are simply no longer good enough in the 21st century when there are now faster and sometimes cheaper alternatives hence the reference no doubt to "Poor transport 'is holding city back".